This is a 38491 frames improvement (~10:42) over the previous TAS, though if you don't take into account some emulators differences (PSX opening screen, loading times), then the improvement is closer to ~39235 frames (~10:54) (and you can add to this 5~10 seconds of extra lag on Bizhawk).
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk-2.2
- BIOS : SCPH5501.BIN
- Heavy glitch abuse
List of improvements
| Vision | Improvement |
| 1-1 | 5 |
| 1-2 | 347 |
| 1-B | 68 |
| 2-1 | 5 |
| 2-2 | 190 |
| 2-B | 325 |
| 3-1 | 2371 |
| 3-2 | 449 |
| 3-B | 31 |
| 4-1 | 2550 |
| 4-2 | 104 |
| 4-B | -22 |
| 5-1 | 1564 |
| 5-2 | 2173 |
| 5-B | 2715 |
| 6-1 | 12030 |
| 6-2 | 14191 |
| 6-B | 215 |
| Final | -76 |
| Total | 39235 |
| Vision | Screen | Improvement | Comments |
| 1-1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 1-1 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1-1 | 3 | 3 | |
| 1-2 | 1 | 7 | |
| 1-2 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1-2 | 3 | -10 | Waited 12 extra frames at the blower |
| 1-2 | 4 | 350 | |
| 1-B | 68 | ||
| 2-1 | 1 | 10 | |
| 2-1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2-1 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2-1 | 4 | -7 | Different leaf position |
| 2-1 | 5 | 1 | |
| 2-2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2-2 | 2 | 49 | |
| 2-2 | 3 | 5 | |
| 2-2 | 4 | 1 | |
| 2-2 | 5 | 102 | |
| 2-2 | 6 | 32 | |
| 2-B | 325 | ||
| 3-1 | 1 | 556 | |
| 3-1 | 2 | 505 | |
| 3-1 | 3 | 240 | |
| 3-1 | 4 | 0 | |
| 3-1 | 5 | 1070 | |
| 3-2 | 1 | 13 | |
| 3-2 | 2 | 0 | |
| 3-2 | 3 | 0 | |
| 3-2 | 4 | 4 | |
| 3-2 | 5 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 6 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 7 | 168 | |
| 3-2 | 8 | 56 | |
| 3-2 | 9 | 2 | |
| 3-2 | 10 | 5 | |
| 3-2 | 11 | 39 | |
| 3-2 | 12 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 13 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 14 | 130 | |
| 3-2 | 15 | 13 | |
| 3-2 | 16 | 3 | |
| 3-2 | 17 | 2 | |
| 3-2 | 18 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 19 | 1 | |
| 3-2 | 20 | 0 | |
| 3-2 | 21 | 0 | |
| 3-2 | 22 | 6 | |
| 3-2 | 23 | -3 | Extra lag |
| 3-2 | 24 | 5 | |
| 3-2 | 25 | 0 | |
| 3-B | 31 | ||
| 4-1 | 1 | 996 | Was previously 3 screens |
| 4-1 | 2 | 1554 | |
| 4-2 | 1 | 7 | |
| 4-2 | 2 | 15 | |
| 4-2 | 3 | 29 | |
| 4-2 | 4 | 48 | |
| 4-2 | 5 | 5 | |
| 4-2 | 6 | 0 | |
| 4-B | -22 | Extra lag | |
| 5-1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 5-1 | 3 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 4 | 1 | |
| 5-1 | 5 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 6 | -5 | Extra lag |
| 5-1 | 7 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 8 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 9 | 13 | |
| 5-1 | 10 | 3 | |
| 5-1 | 11 | -4 | Extra lag |
| 5-1 | 12 | 128 | |
| 5-1 | 13 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 14 | 1424 | |
| 5-1 | 15 | 1 | |
| 5-1 | 16 | 0 | |
| 5-1 | 17 | 1 | |
| 5-2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 5-2 | 2 | 417 | Was previously 3 screens |
| 5-2 | 3 | 62 | |
| 5-2 | 4 | -184 | Manipulating day/night cycle |
| 5-2 | 5 | 217 | |
| 5-2 | 6 | 474 | |
| 5-2 | 7 | 7 | |
| 5-2 | 8 | 1132 | |
| 5-2 | 9 | 0 | |
| 5-2 | 10 | 48 | |
| 5-2 | 11 | 0 | |
| 5-B | 2715 | ||
| 6-1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 6-1 | 2 | 0 | |
| 6-1 | 3 | 0 | |
| 6-1 | 4-6 | 12033 | Was previously 23 screens |
| 6-1 | 7 | -3 | Extra lag |
| 6-2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 6-2 | 2 | 0 | |
| 6-2 | 3 | 0 | |
| 6-2 | 4-5 | 14188 | Was previously 18 screens |
| 6-2 | 6 | 3 | |
| 6-B | 215 | ||
| Final | 1 | -20 | Extra lag |
| Final | 2 | -44 | Extra lag |
| Final | 3 | -12 | Extra lag |
| Total | 39235 |
Comments
General
Klonoa can only move, jump, glide (for ~1s) and throw his ring to try to catch an enemy (AKA Moo). If he is holding an enemy, he can throw him or use him to do a double-jump in the air. Unlike most PSX games, this game runs at 60 FPS.
Speed and movement (typical cases)
On standard ground, Klonoa's speed goes instantly to 41369 in 1 frame (as long as his previous speed was lower than that), and in other cases increases by 409 each frame until it reaches ~53250. If his speed is higher than that, then it will decrease by 512 every frame until it reaches ~53250.
In the air, Klonoa's speed goes instantly to 18432 in 1 frame (as long as his previous speed was lower than that), and in other cases increases by 2048 each frame. If his speed is higher than 53248 (0xD000), then it will decrease by 2048 instead. It means that once Klonoa reaches his aerial top speed, his speed will go up and down by 2048 until he is back on the ground.
While randomly jumping would usually result in a slower speed than just walking, jumping at specific speeds in order to get a high "aerial speed pairing" is actually faster than walking. The highest pairing you can get is 53248-55296 (so a speed of 54272 on average), which is ~1,6% faster than walking, saving on average 2 frames every 3 jumps. The best and fastest way to get a high pairing when Klonoa is already at max walking speed (and that this speed would not give a high pairing) is often to stop moving for one frame (which sligthly decreases Klonoa's speed) and then start moving again until a high pairing is available (after 4 or 5 frames usually).
When at zero speed, the best way to start to move is to walk for 1 frame (to go instantly to 41369), and then either jump as soon as possible (if there is a low ceiling, you get the high pairing in the second jump) or jump as soon as a high pairing is available (so you spent 3~5 more frames on the ground, but the extra speed you would get on these frame isn't worth the time lost due to the low pairing if you jump as soon as possible).
Gliding is very slow and double-jumping puts Klonoa's speed to 0, so both of these moves should be avoided as much as possible. Taking damage may be necessary sometimes, and the speed in damaged state is of ~52000.
Speed and movement (specific situations)
Slopes : It's similar the standard ground, except that the speed increases faster (depending on the tilt angle) and caps at 81920. What is considered as a slope isn't always intuitive.
Rivers (visions 2-2 and 4-2) : They give a boost of speed of 45056 (0xB000), and most of them are slopes, so you can reach a speed cap of either ~98300 or 126976. In both cases, stopping to move gives an instant extra boost of speed of 45056 but then the speed decreases by 2048 each frame. Starting to move again gives an instant penalty of speed of 45056 and then the speed increases like normal (depending if it's a slope or not). From my calculations, the optimal way to move under these conditions is to reach the cap, then stop moving for 1 frame, then move again until the cap and repeat the process. If a screen ends with a river, it may be better to totally stop moving at the end.
Glitches and tricks
- Wall clip : The new glitch responsible of the biggest improvements, most notably trivialising visions 6-1 and 6-2. When trying to get close to a wall while holding an enemy and in the air, the game will reposition Klonoa, however it will not do this if Klonoa isnt looking left or right. In addition, if Klonoa wasn't repositioned and try to move through the wall for 1 frame (and then looking up or down for at least 1 frame), the game will shift him a little bit on the left (so this glitch can't be used to go through a wall on the right). After doing this enough time (5 times usually), Klonoa will be so far to the left that the game will not try to reposition him anymore. As an extension of this glitch, you can carry enemies through passages with low ceilings, which in some cases can break the level design (like vision 6-1).
- Storing a double-jump : When Klonoa try to jump while in the air and while his ring catched an enemy, the game will automatically do a double-jump once the ring is back to him. However if in the meantime Klonoa is on the ground, the double-jump will be stored and will be done as soon as Klonoa leaves the ground. It's usually a bad glitch since we want to avoid double-jumps, but in the case of opening a door with a key it will save some time since we can regain control of Klonoa almost instantly instead of waiting for the cutscene to end.
- Damaged state cancel : Some frames after taking damage, you can throw your ring to gain control of Klonoa sooner than intended. It's only faster if Klonoa is thrown on the wrong direction, so I only used it in the TAS... once ?
Stage by stage comments
Vision 1-1
No change here apart from better speed optimizations. The blower at the first screen started later than the previous TAS (emulators differences), which may have costed 1 or 2 frames.
Vision 1-2
A new skip at the end to save some seconds, everything else was similar. I had to wait 12 extra frames at the third screen once again because of the blower starting later.
Vision 1-B
The bosses are hard to manipulate in this game (mostly based on when you hit them, and most of the time you must delayed the hit by several seconds to get a different output). After being hit, this one can do a useless animation that also keep his invulnerability longer, so I am happy that I managed to get a faster time than the previous TAS.
Vision 2-1
Vision 2-2
First use of the wall clip, though before doing it I had to move a little bit further to the right to make the 2 last enemies spawn.
Vision 2-B
Same issues than the first boss since there are some useless animations that we want to avoid.
Vision 3-1
A lot of wall clips to avoid some back and forth. The switch in the last screen was activated earlier with a well timed double-jump.
Vision 3-2
Some wall clips here and there. A lot of time could be saved if a wall clip on the right was possible. It's also from this point on that some screens start to lag more than on PSXJin.
Vision 3-B
Almost the same strategy except for the last hit.
Vision 4-1
An odd wall clip to skip one screen. The last series of double-jumps was very accurate, and a RTA runner would usually wait for the first enemy to be more on the left before doing it.
Vision 4-2
No change apart from better speed optimizations.
Vision 4-B
The perfect place to see the emulation differences between the two emulators. Despite the straight forward strategy, I lost 22 frames on this boss only due to lag.
Vision 5-1
Similar strategies with more lag in the outdoor screens. For the red orb path, I somehow managed to barely grab the enemy to take down the second platform that I couldn't get on the previous TAS. The alternative would have been to not take it down and use a wall clip to bring an enemy with me to cross the gap, but it was ~50 frames slower in the end.
Vision 5-2
Aside from the wall clip to skip a screen, the two main improvements were to wait some extra time outside in order to get a more favourable day/night cycle, and to grab the caged moo early through a small flaw at the right of the cage.
Vision 5-B
Joka has 8 HP and will transform after taking 3 and 6 hits (or more). Throwing an enemy while Joka is at the other side of the ring will (barely) not reach him, but since the thrown enemy is faster than Joka who took a hit, it's possible to double hit him if you throw 2 enemies. Another glitch is that when Joka is moving toward the ring, there is a 1 frame windows where he will stay in place if hitted instead of being throw away. With carefull Moos positionning, I was able to deal him the last 3 hits without letting him transform again.
Vision 6-1
Bringing a Moo in the main hub isn't supposed to be possible and leads to a big level design abuse.
Vision 6-2
Similar to 6-1 because of the level design.
Vision 6-B
I saved some time with better luck manipulation, despite the fact that there was most likely more lag. Please note that dealing the final blow any frame sooner would softlock the game, so I had to wait ~50 frames for this one.
Final vision
No time to save here since all phases have some limitations (there is a frame rule for when the canons can shoot, and the moving platform is preventing me from ending sooner on second boss phase).
Possible improvements
- Finding something similar to the wall clip but to the right in order to skip most of vision 3-2
- Less lag. I didn't put much attention to it since it's not even well detected by Bizhawk, but I guess it must be possible to reduce it at some places.
Special Thanks
The Klonoa speedruns discord for their advice and suggestions, especially Balneor.
Suggest screenshot :
frame 104941
feos: Spikestuffing Judging...
feos: Great job! Accepting to obsolete [2396] PSX Klonoa: Door to Phantomile by lapogne36 in 45:25.80.
Spikestuff: WAHOO!